There are a lot of big things on this little phone – the Asus Zenfone 9 is actually a bit smaller than the Zenfone 8, but it brings a bigger camera sensor, bigger battery, big VC for the chipset, and so on.
The 9 series phone measures 146.6 x 68.2 x 9.5mm and weighs 165g, making it one of the smallest Android flagships. It’s not a mini, but it does have quite the impact. It’s powered by the new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, and Asus replaced the Zenfone 8’s heat pipe with a large vapor chamber to keep it cool.
There are three memory configurations: 8/128GB, 8/256G2B and 16/256GB (LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage). There’s no microSD card slot (there wasn’t one last year either). The phone will launch with near stock Android 12 and will receive 2 major OS updates and at least 2 years of security patches.
Back to the body for a moment, the center frame is made of aluminum. The back is made of a polymeric material that is harder to scratch than plastic and more resistant to breakage than glass. The phone has an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, the front is guarded by Gorilla Glass Victus.
The 5.9-inch screen uses an HDR10+ OLED panel from Samsung with a resolution of 1,080 x 2,400px (20:9, 445ppi). It has a refresh rate of 120 Hz (with options of 90 and 60 Hz) and a sampling rate of 240 Hz. It’s a bright screen, peaking at 1,100 nits and 800 nits at 100% APL (ie a completely white screen).
Asus has calibrated the screen at two different brightness levels to ensure a high-quality image at all times (average deltaE
The Zenfone 9 uses three Sony sensors for its cameras. The main module on the back is equipped with the 50MP IMX766 (1/1.56”, 1.0 µm pixels). This module has a 6-axis hybrid gimbal stabilizer that is three times more effective than regular OIS. There is no telephoto lens on this phone, but the IMX766 can zoom 2x lossless (at 16MP resolution).
The secondary camera is a 113° ultra-wide module based on the 12MP IMX363 (1/2.55”, 1.4µm). It also has autofocus so it can shoot macro (4cm) and it also has advanced EIS for hyperSteady stabilization. The main camera can record video at 8K 24fps with EIS and 4K at 60fps with EIS. The 12MP front camera (IMX663, 1/2.93”, 1.22µm) also has autofocus, Dual PDAF in fact, so it can capture sharp selfies and 4K video at 30fps (or 1080p at 60fps ).
Asus takes audio seriously, so it combined Qualcomm hardware with Dirac tuning. There are two speakers on board. The bottom one has a 7 magnet design (12x16mm), the top one is a 3 magnet speaker (10x12mm). Each room has a Qualcomm Aqstic amplifier (WSA8835). There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack onboard, but if you’d rather go wireless, aptX HD and Adaptive are supported, as well as LDAC and AAC. You have access to four audio styles from Dirac and a 10-band equalizer. Custom configuration details are available for most Asus headphones to help you get the best audio from the phone and headphones.
As promised, the battery is quite large, at 4,300 mAh, it has 300 mAh more in its tank than the Zenfone 8 battery (also, the similarly sized Galaxy S22 has a 3,700 mAh battery). This gives you the freedom not to use everything – you can set the maximum charge to 90% or 80%. The latter will reduce battery degradation, only 7% after 500 cycles instead of 15% when fully charged.
You can do more for the battery. The phone comes with a 30W HyperCharger (it supports USB Power Delivery 3.0 PPS), but you can switch between the Steady and Ultra Steady modes, which limit the charging power to 18W and 10W respectively. This lowers the temperature and extends battery life. Asus promises almost 2 days of battery life and this is with many phone calls (90 min), hundreds of text messages, streaming music for over an hour, watching YouTube and TikTok videos, gaming for an hour, taking some photos and recording videos every day.
The Zenfone 9 moves the fingerprint reader from below the screen to the side of the phone. This allows it to act as a smart button. For example, you can scroll up or down by swiping up or down. You can also set custom actions for double-press or long-press.
The phone pulls a page from the ROG playbook with Game Genie. It lets you block notifications, but it also allows you to hover any app over the game if you need to respond or check something. The Genie can display game FPS, estimated battery life, system temperatures and more. It can also remove background apps from RAM if needed. It has a built-in screen recorder to record your gameplay and it can also help you with a macro function that can automate a complex series of touch actions. If you’re really stuck, you can also search the web or search YouTube for a guide, all without leaving the game.
Asus has put together an above-average retail package. You get the 30W HyperCharge adapter and cable, plus a bumper cover. The packaging is made from recycled paper with soy ink and has a non-stick design.
Okay, how much? The Asus Zenfone 8 starts at €800 for the 8/128 GB model (exact price depends on local VAT). It will be available first in Europe, Hong Kong and Taiwan, then it will go to North America, Japan, Indonesia and parts of South America.
Asus Zenfone 9 in Midnight Black, Moonlight White, Star Blue and Sunset Red
There’s no Flip model, at least not yet – if you want something bigger, there’s always the ROG Phone 6.
Before we wrap up, Asus also unveiled a range of cases called the Connex Accessory Kit. It allows accessories to be attached to it, for example a kickstand programmed to start YouTube automatically when opened (you can switch to another app from the settings). There is also the Connex card holder, which holds business cards.
There is also the Smart Backpack Mount. You attach this to the shoulder strap of your backpack and keep the phone stable (thanks to a magnetic base) so that you can use it as an action cam. If you need to check the card or something, the phone is on a retractable lanyard so you can pull it, use it, and let it move back to your shoulder.
